Annual Report for 1894 of the Zoologist. 
783 
It is quite possible that no great importance is to be attached to 
the occasional occurrence of this insect in considerable numbers. On 
the other hand, it is at present by no means so rare as the older 
entomologists appear to have found it, and measures should be taken 
to combat it as soon as it appears. 
The Elm-bark Beetle. 
Scolytus destructor. 
An avenue of elms near Droitwich was reported, in July last, to 
be suffering from beetle attack, and though the material sent for 
identification was very meagre, there could be little doubt that 
Scolytus destructor was the insect at work. 
The female burrows under the elm -bark in June, and having 
formed a tunnel some three or four inches long, lays her eggs along 
its sides. The main injury results from the borings of the larvae, 
which hatch out from the eggs towards the end of June. They 
burrow under the bark in all directions, often causing large portions 
to flake off, and, in cases of bad attack, killing the tree. 
When such an attack is noticed, it is of the greatest importance 
to at once cut down the trees which are plainly killed, and to 
rip off and burn the bark, with the contained grubs. Otherwise the 
dead tree acts as a nursery for the beetles, and is a standing menace 
to the sound trees near it. 
On the large scale, the treatment proposed by M. Robert, and 
described by Miss Ormerod in her Manual , has been tried in 
France, with very satisfactory results. This consists in shaving off 
all the rough outer bark of the elm-trees with an implement of the 
nature of a spokeshave, going especially deep in portions of the tree 
where the attack is most severe. Many grubs are actually destroyed 
by the operation, and, moreover, a copious flow of sap is induced in 
the soft inner bark, which appears to be fatal to the insects. 
In cases where a tree is but slightly attacked, or where its value 
makes the extra labour involved a matter of little importance, it 
may be saved by the following treatment. The worker is furnished 
with a ladder, a bradawl, a syringe with narrow, pointed nozzle, and 
some suitable insecticide fluid, such as Gishurst Compound. The 
beetle-holes are sought upon the trunk, and cleared with the 
bradawl, and some of the fluid forcibly injected. It travels along 
the burrows of the larvse and kills them. The best time for this 
operation is July or August, but it may be performed later. It is 
a good plan to leave the bark from felled elm-trees for a time as 
decoys for the beetle, but in this case it must be destroyed without 
fail early in May, before the insects emerge. 
Ground Beetles. 
Once more complaints have been received of injury being done 
by beetles which are usually thought to be carnivorous, and 
therefore useful. A strawberry crop was alleged to have been 
destroyed near Nottingham by beetles which proved on examination 
3 f 2 
